Magpies may lose Owen to Toffees

May 9 2009 The Journal

ALAN Shearer’s hopes of keeping Michael Owen at Newcastle United suffered another blow after it emerged Everton are preparing to offer him a contract this summer.

With the 29-year-old striker refusing to put pen to paper on a new contract until the end of the campaign, it seemed a foregone conclusion the out-of-favour England forward would be playing his club football elsewhere next season.

But the arrival of his close friend and former strike partner Shearer as manager raised hopes Owen might be persuaded to extend his four-year stay on Tyneside – if the Magpies were to avoid relegation.

That is by no means certain with Monday’s home match against Middlesbrough set to have a huge bearing on both sides’ survival prospects.

Without Shearer at the helm or Premier League football to offer, Newcastle have no chance of seeing Owen in their number ten shirt again. But even if both were to happen, Everton would remain an enticing prospect to Owen, who supported the Toffees as a child.

With Brazilian Jo set to return to Manchester City at the end of his loan and Victor Anichebe’s Goodison Park future in doubt, David Moyes needs to bolster his striking resources for next season.

For long parts of the current campaign, midfielders Marouane Fellaini and Tim Cahill operated impressively as auxiliary forwards.

Moyes is determined not to leave himself as exposed again and knows with his side qualifying for the Europa Cup – a rebranded version of the Uefa Cup more

along the lines of the Champions League - the demands on them will be greater next season.

However, with funds severely limited, he will have to do his squad strengthening on the cheap. So Owen (pictured right), available on a Bosman signing, appeals.

Once Jo and Anichebe are out of the equation, Moyes is left with Yakubu - recovering from the knee problem which ended his season in November - the injury-prone pair of Louis Saha and James Vaughan, and a handful of youngsters.

He would prefer a striker of greater physical stature to complement them but sees the chance to sign one of England’s most prolific goalscorers on a free transfer as too good to turn down.

He is not, though, expected to bid for another boyhood Evertonian, Joey Barton, something Bolton Wanderers boss Gary Megson refused to rule out yesterday.

Everton can offer Owen the two things he perhaps wants the most – European football and the chance to move back to the north west. The lure of continental competition brought him to Newcastle from Real Madrid four years ago when his preferred club, Liverpool, failed to bid for his services.

Owen would have to accept a pay cut to return to Merseyside, but that will be the case wherever he goes. If Everton do not offer too much less than the Magpies, United’s captain is sure to give them careful consideration at the end of the season.

Probably the ideal scenario for the centre-forward is for Manchester City to tie up seventh place, thereby also qualifying for next season’s Europa League, then follow it with a wage offer greater than Everton or Newcastle are prepared to make.

There are more than a few “ifs” in that equation, including whether Mark Hughes will want a player with similar physical attributes to Craig Bellamy – and whether his paymasters will view Owen as sufficiently high-profile.

The striker’s stock has fallen this season, when England manager Fabio Capello has refused to select him in any squads. It reached a low point on Sunday when Owen suffered the indignity of returning to Anfield for a crucial league match as a substitute.

United’s captain has too much respect for Shearer to let his public snub dissuade him from committing to Newcastle once more - and is expected to be back in the starting line-up for Monday’s even more important match.

Few Newcastle fans would mourn Owen’s departure after receiving just 57 league starts and 13 goals in all competitions for a £16m investment.